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Clade Song 16

Yoga

What gains gather to
the heron and egret?
for being perpendicular and erect?
They are mutely beautiful,
but do not share A clam or fish
one legged, they stand
alone on tidal flats,
serious and erect:
To preen and see
From marsh to sea;

As for me,
I'll mime their naturalness
with unnaturalness:
I'll lean into a fluid
downward dog,
and hold a moment
on one leg,
serious, erect
as an egret.

 
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Chris Crockett earned a BA magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Virginia in 1969, followed by a Master of Science in International Studies from The Johns Hopkins University in 1975.

He then began his career with the Peace Corps in Chad, Africa, before moving into international banking with Citibank and Bank of America. Over sixteen years, he worked in New York City, Athens, Jeddah, London, Bahrain, and Boston, completing executive training in New York and Athens and specializing in corporate lending to clients across the Middle East and Arabian Gulf. During this time, he served on the boards of the International Bank of Yemen, the National Bank of Oman, and the Kuwait Real Estate Bank. Since then, he has worked at various organizations in London, Boston and Washington DC. He now lives in Ipswich, Mass.

He has been working with poetry as a necessary exchange with the less verbal parts of himself. It often can’t be said any other way and even that way is imperfect; rutted with many potholes. He took a class in his teens, taught by a charismatic and insightful teacher who introduced him to William Carlos Williams. This was the beginning of a lifelong interest with many influences. Who among us can deny influences? We stand on the shoulders of those that came before us. And that includes John Berryman, Phillip Larkin, Albert Goldbarth, Jaswinder Bolina and John Updike.